Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic books, specifically to a computerized system and method for creating interactive electronic books.
Description of the Related Art
An electronic book or e-book is a publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on computers, tablets or other electronic devices. Although sometimes defined as “an electronic version of a printed book”, many e-books exist without any printed equivalent. Commercially produced and sold e-books are usually intended to be read on dedicated e-book readers, however, almost any sophisticated electronic device that features a controllable viewing screen, including computers, many mobile phones, and all smart phones may also be used to read e-books.
While an e-book reader costs much more than one book, the electronic texts are at times cheaper. Moreover, a great share of e-books are available online for free, minus the minimal costs of the electronics required. For example, all fiction from before the year 1900 is in the public domain. Also, libraries lend more current e-book titles for limited times, free samples are available of many publications, and there are other lending models being piloted as well. E-books may be printed for less than the price of traditional new books using new on-demand book printers. An e-book can be purchased/borrowed, downloaded, and used immediately, whereas when one buys or borrows a book, one must go to a bookshop, a home library, or public library during limited hours, or wait for a delivery.
Some e-books are interactive and/or include programmed effects, such as but not limited to animations, spreadsheet-style functions, etc. However, creating such an e-book requires the author to either be a programmer or to hire a programmer. Accordingly, most e-book authors are limited to creating e-books without any special effects.
Some improvements have been made in the field. Examples of references related to the present invention are described below in their own words, and the supporting teachings of each reference are incorporated by reference herein:
U.S. Pat. No. 7,631,013, issued to Parsons et al., discloses a book or other digital content is represented as a set of objects in a relational database schema format called IBF (Interactive Book Format) and the controlling system software. This design provides for viewing books in a manner that coordinates additional information and provides interaction with the original book, while not disturbing the original publication and copyrighted material and even protecting that copyrighted material from piracy by supporting industry standard digital rights management security features. The inventive technique includes the use of conversion engines which will aid publishers in converting existing books into IBF format. The inventive technology further provides the ability to read any book in IBF format on a computer using refreshable Braille display, allowing the reader the advantage of reading all books in this format without having to purchase expensive, specially made Braille books.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,424,916, issued to Shade, discloses methods for creating customized children's storybooks with fingerprint art using fingerprint-ready image templates stored in association with a software application running on a standard home computer system. The systems and methods include the use of preconfigured templates and prompted discussions that elicit responses from the child to create the text for the storybook. Initially, the appropriate size of the child's fingerprint is determined and the storybook scenes are scaled to fit that size. Fingerprint-ready image templates are used to facilitate the creation of fingerprint art. An image template is formed by including within it at least one fingerprint-sized area. A completed image is formed by inserting a fingerprint into the fingerprint-sized area, and if desired, coloring the image or drawing a scene around the image. In one technique, an entire scene is produced including one or more fingerprint-ready image template(s). When the storybook scenes are completed the software application compiles the book pages and prints the same. The child then personalizes the scene images with their fingerprint and the storybook is bound for repeated reading.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No.: 2013/0117665, by Tagliaferri et al., discloses a system and method of individualized media publishing including a customization server configured to receive an electronic work from a content creator, create a custom field within the electronic work, and store the custom field in a database or a memory storage device. The system and method receives a request for a customized electronic work from a consumer, and transmits a notification to the content creator informing the content creator of the request for the customized electronic work. The system inserts customized content created by the content creator into the custom field and creates the customized electronic work. The customized electronic work may then be delivered to the consumer.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No.: 2012/0171653, by Kwon et al., discloses a method of creating a relationship diagram for electronic book (or e-book) contents in a reader includes determining whether there is a relationship diagram creation request in a current page. The method includes, if there is the relationship diagram creation request, determining whether there is a relationship diagram associated with a previous page. In addition, the method includes, if there is the relationship diagram associated with the previous page, displaying the relationship diagram in an input window. Further, the method includes, if the relationship diagram displayed in the input window is modified and there is a save request, allowing the modified relationship diagram to be saved in accordance with the current page.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No.: 2002/0124048, by Zhou, discloses a web based interactive multimedia story authoring system and method are provided including a user part, a computer server part, and a means of communication part. A user accesses a web site through the means of communication, the web site being hosted by the computer server. The user is able to create stories while being logged on to the web site, through selection of various story components as arranged and selected by the user. Story components may include text, background, character/objects, music/audio, or other files stored at the computer server, as well as files which may be uploaded to the computer server by the user. The web site provides various user executable commands to add, delete, or modify components of a story. The web based authoring system allows for publication of stories to a worldwide audience, and facilitates writing competitions to anyone having access to the worldwide web. User accounts may be established for frequent users allowing a user to save and publish stories. Because the system is web based, there is virtually a limitless amount of data to choose from in terms of components to make up a particular story.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No.: 2013/0124980, by Hudson et al., discloses A digital content creation platform can include a variety of features for creating an interactive digital publication. The functionality can include adding one or more sections, one or more pages to a section, and one or more layers to a page, such as box, story, image, video, table, map, and annotation layer types. Additionally, the digital content creation platform can include functionality to add multimedia content to a layer, link layers, and/or add some other action, such as an interactivity feature or behavior. The digital content creation platform can also include functionality to generate a template from the current layout or convert the current layout to a different template layout. At any point during the design, the digital content creation platform can be used to preview or run the digital publication. Finally, after adding content, the digital content creation platform can compile the digital publication for distribution.
The inventions heretofore known suffer from a number of disadvantages which include being limited in use, being difficult to use, being limited in application, being limited in animation, being limited in functionality, being limited in distribution, being limited in interactivity, not enabling an author to generate special effects within their e-book, being difficult to program, not including enough options, failing to connect developers with authors, failing to facilitate collaboration, failing to track authoring progress, being limited in distribution format, failing to register page items in relation to each other, etc.
What is needed is a computerized system and method for creating interactive electronic books that solves one or more of the problems described herein and/or one or more problems that may come to the attention of one skilled in the art upon becoming familiar with this specification.